WhatsApp will soon be free for life

WhatsApp is dropping its yearly charge and will soon be free to all users.

Whatsapp has traditionally been free for one year free and then users had to spend spend 99 cents/69p every year after.

App founder Jan Koum said at the DLD conference in Munich that it will be dropping the charge and that there won’t be anymore charges going forward. What isn’t yet clear is how WhatsApp plans to monetise the move.

At the moment Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, uses data and ads to make money, but it’s not going to go down well if the messaging app decides to go down the same route.

Although the charge isn’t much and most users are willing to pay – over 900 million of them – it does mean you will soon be able to use WhatsApp without having to have any payment details attached to your account.

It looks like the fee is still in place right now, but expect it to be dropped very soon. Bad luck if you’ve already paid for this year.